DOOGEE S Mini Review : The most unique phone of 2023

DOOGEE Philippines recently announced their first smartphone offering in the country as a comeback, surprisingly its the very unique Doogee S Mini which a puzzle for us the question “Who will use this phone in 2023?”

Offering a 4.5-inch display built on a rigid military standard 810H body, this smartphone can really lead you puzzling if you need it in a standard of 2023 where the screen size is built for way back 2012.

To its the product’s defense this isn’t just a retro phone as its powered by a decent Helio G99 processor, 8GB RAM and ample 256GB storage. So this can actually perform decently and most applications today, plus given Android 13 OS.

Rather than the standard approach of doing reviews, we will do this by answering your curiosity over questions that we think you might ask.

How small is it really? 

Side by side with the 6.1″ Galaxy S23 which is small already in the standards of 2023, the 4.5″ Doogee S Mini is literary a dwarf especially when compared to most sized smartphones at 6.67″ displays.

Fitting just exactly in my hand, you can easily navigate the top part of the screen down to the bottom screen with just you thumb. Honestly this is a neat thing we like with this size, but touch is challenging especially in special menus that have small buttons or even the keyboard

A flap covers the Type-C port at the bottom, so you might need to be careful on the flap as based on experience this will tend to over flex and might not fit the cap’s cover in due time.

One question I wanted to ask Doogee “is the Type-C port is water rejection treated even without the rubber flap cover”. Will update you once this is answered by a Doogee representative.

The sim card tray is a wonderful one given that you can easily open it by using your nails instead of a push type sim ejector tool. It can be a dual sim setup or one can be a TF card as the 2nd slot if a hybrid.

How’s the typing experience? 

Typing at the small keyboard will take adjustments that some areas will be surely be having problems, for me usual suspects to get mistaken is the “E” becoming “W”, “L” becoming “backspace” and accessing the “number” menu could lead to miss pressing the corner instead.

There’s a screen at the back?

Yes, but it’s just to have a quick glance of the status like battery, temp, clock and date. So far it’s nothing special to give attention but its very useful especially if you’re a person which places their phone on a table all the time.

Is the camera even good?

50MP at the main camera, 8MP at the front. While the cameras are up to the megapixel count of today, we just find the photos produced with so-so output similar to an entry-level smartphone.

Hopefully Doogee can fix the problem of the auto-white balance as you can see some photos are yellowish rather than being cool. Aside from that, just set your expectations when taking moving shots like selfies as this isn’t a performance style camera.  

Did you try gaming? 

Behold my thumb blocking 1/2 of the lower part of the screen already just to navigate Kimmy.

Performance wise the smaller qHD+ resolution works wonders in the graphics of Mobile Legends as everything is smooth. The challenge though will be more of the touch as selecting the skills at the lowest row like the regen, recall, etc kinda triggers the home swipe gesture and you need to be aware of this. While buying items like clicking on the available items for purchase at the upper right will might tend you to accidentally press the attack / retreat / backup.

Definitely a learning curve when you want to play Mobile Legends here, but for using this phone we reco just to use basic characters as complicated characters will entail to more errors. Nevertheless I still won on my first game.

Any good experience and callouts? 

Aside from being portable and fits into just one hand, one amazing experience I want to commend is watching vertical content like Titkok and reels. You can really go for hours scrolling and enjoying with this size as vercial contents doesn’t require higher resolutions which is a match to the lower qHD+ screen.

Watching Youtube in vertical is a challenge, of course in this scenario you will have to tweak in landscape for a better experience.

Facebook is tiny as expected but easy to navigate, you will just have to keep on scrolling more for every content

Nevertheless the speakers on this phone is fairly good, located at the lower back part you won’t have accidental covers even in any orientation using the phone.

Can 3000mAh last for a day for a battery?

Built to be though this smartphone can also last for a day given the smaller screen size and low power chipset. Most of the time among use I was able to stretch a whole day while having 30% arriving home.

Though the charging rate is only 18W, it will only take around an hour to charge fairly since the battery last a day.

Is it really durable?

Metal side frames and corner edges + top and bottom chin with layers of hard rubber really looks cool, plus the accents on the metal to make it industrial yet functional by being tactile. So even if you aren’t looking at the device, every part is distinguishable given with time to memorize each part.

Dropping the phone into solid floors like tiles, smashing into tables and even clapping against a wall didn’t do any major damage doing it for several times. One note though is the side metal paint is prone to chip off if you hit it hard against something. But hey this phone is built to withstand damage in the first place so this should be part of your expectation in owning one.

Conclusion + Who will use it? 

I had fun exploring what the Doogee S Mini can offer especially it’s small footprint in where a world we are now used in a smartphone where 6″ is already a standard. Honestly, we see this as a secondary phone for professionals who needs focus on their field.

Given the smaller footprint, the Doogee S Mini can enable you to be more focused in certain scenarios rather than being the jack of all trades of a smartphone user. This is really for people who are constant in what they do in a smartphone.

An example that I can think of are professionals (Engineers, Construction, Mining, Construction) that are on-site who simply needs call / text and basic internet to communicate. Reason for this is that bringing a full pledge smartphone could hinder to your work and might be risky in getting damaged, imagine an iPhone brought into a mining site and you might risk bumping your phone more and could deal to damage.

Additionally, this can also be a phone for enterprise usage like being smartphone for delivery companies that will simply encode and scan QR / Barcodes. Overall anything with a pre-determined function that this smartphone can do, then it would be ideal to use the Doogee S Mini.

Priced at Php13,999 this smartphone isn’t cheap, so you will really have a purpose in getting this phone. But if you want a durable smartphone with smart features that can basically get the job done, then this is definitely your one and unique option which is meant for you to have.